6 Responses:

my grandpa's older brother has a much bigger hole in his forehead than this guy. He got it when he was beaten with an iron bat as a kid, apparently it's a miracle he lived (he's 102 now, still totally sharp), but I guess this is totally doable.

Apparently there were many thousands of these guys after the civil war. Skull trauma from hand to hand combat was extremely common (rifles were swung around as clubs). The surgeons could successfully take out the shattered piece of skull with a trephine and stitch the hole over.